Field Theory: Four Years Ago
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All in all, I had a pretty good night-didn't watch the game, stayed on the Shore and watched the fireworks from Mt Victoria. It felt like a pleasant night was had by all.
I'm confused by the focus on the mishaps with the trains, though. Yes, there does need to be an investigation because these aren't new issues, only issues occurring on a greater scale. But the fact that both ferries and buses from the Shore to the city were suspended for a while seems to have rated scarcely a mention, as is the fact that buses were also overloaded and not picking up passengers.
I left work at 4:30 pm (I would have loved to have left earlier, but my boss was having none of it) and spent more than two hours struggling to get back home via bus along Lake Rd, which was gridlocked-by private cars, not buses-for hours. Had I decided to take up a friend on their invitation and meet them for dinner in Grey Lynn instead, it would certainly have taken much longer than that to get anywhere. None of this is acceptable, yet the focus on trains means we'll probably just have a shrug and a grin from the usual suspects, instead of a serious investigation into why our city's infrastructure broke down and stopped doing what it was supposed to do.
I mean, it's not as though TPTB can claim they didn't know that the RWC was on, right?
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A lot of it to me seems to come down to lack of planning and managing pedestrian traffic around venues. Were those who know about crowd control listened to?
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Radio Sport’s Rugby World Cup 2011 anthem …
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I had a lovely night - got my mojo back - for last night's game at least. Yay!
Wellington Batucada were performing in the Fanzone at 6pm after the Wellington International Ukelele Orchestra (w00t!) and we were planning to parade around the Fanzone keeping all the fans entertained.
However, there were so many people there by 6pm that once we'd made our way into the middle of the zone we were completely hemmed in by the crowds standing 10-deep watching us and it was clear we weren't going to be able to do any parading at all. We had a great time! The crowd seemed to really enjoy our performance and we got lots of cheers and smiles and applause all the way through.
After we finished our set we were able to leave all our drums in the Green Room and venture back into the Fanzone to watch the opening ceremony and then the game on the big screen.
Can I say how completely fabulous and awe-inspiring I thought the opening ceremony was? The graphics projected onto the performance arena were amazing - I'd love to know how they did that - it was jaw-droppingly good.
And the game - well, I thought that much of it was a thing of beauty - I LOVE it when the ABs are given sufficient space to play their running & passing game - it's like a sporting ballet - and some of those passes were pure poetry - like SBW's blind reverse pass inside to Toeva during the runup to the second try, and Dagg's backhanded pass leading up to the Kahui try. Fab.
The atmosphere in the Fanzone was fantastic - all very good-humoured and friendly, a few drunk-ish people but it just left them in a jolly mood rather than an aggressive one. They announced on the big screen that the Fanzone was at full capacity somewhere during the opening ceremony, and it remained packed but not uncomfortably so for the whole game.
Afterwards, like a haka flash mob, we all drifted away fairly rapidly, and I was able to catch a (very full) bus home no problem. The bus driver did his best to pack as many of us on as possible, and only had to refuse maybe 20 people along the rest of the route down Lambton Quay, which is about the same as you'd get after any game at the Cake Tin. I think Welli does public transport pretty well, all things considered.
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Carol Stewart, in reply to
you see a haka as clean and intense as this one
I'm sure you're right, George, but, sadly, this video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Rugby World Cup Ltd.
Mutter. -
Dancing Cranes. Dancing godamned Cranes. I think I can die happy now (yes, I'm easily pleased)!
The fireworks section of the opening ceremony was astounding. Co-ordinated musicians, vehicles, performers and pyrotechnics across half-a-dozen or so locations, dozens of camera operators, all directed with aplomb and edited into a smooth presentation. It'd be amazingly good if it was a highlights package for a tourism video, but that damn thing was put together and broadcast live! Amazing.
Shame the game that followed wasn't quite as good; but then, it was always going to be a bit one sided. Today's Romania vs Scotland game, on the other hand, had me sitting on the edge of my seat. Now that was fun!
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South Africa have 2 WC wins from 2 less tournaments than us, plus another loss in a final to go with the 03 quarterfinal exit. They’ve only ever lost two knockout games in 4 tournaments versus the ABs who have lost 5 knockout games in the last 5 tournaments.
That’s not necessarily a useful analysis. Using that model, you might have two teams, one of which always got beaten at the quarter-final stage, and another which always lost the final. And you’d rate them the same as they’d both lost the same number of knockouts.
Centre of Dunedin was well humming last night for the ABs game. Well set up with bars spewing onto the streets and no problems apart from trying to find a seat. Tonight hopefully will go well, there were crazy numbers of campervans driving into town yesterday. Go Argentina.Romania just played a fantastic game against Scotland – let in two late tries to mean they didn’t win, but gave it all with very limited speed. Scotland are going to have to be way better than that if they want to make the quarters.
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Minister McCully's official statement.
"Two areas of under-performance clearly require immediate attention. Auckland's public transport system failed to deliver to the required standard. In spite of reasonably successful trial events, there is no escaping the fact that last night's performance was short of the standard required. Urgent steps will now need to be taken to ensure that these matters are rectified before the next large Eden Park match next weekend,” he said.
"While Queens Wharf operations were highly successful, event arrangements for those in the Quay St area simply did not meet the needs of the extremely large crowd that gathered. While such large gatherings will occur infrequently, it is important that the structural problems evident in this area are addressed quickly.”
"I welcome the fact that Mayor Len Brown has committed the city to addressing the areas of deficiency that fall within its responsibility. Over the next few days I will continue to meet with relevant agencies to ensure there is a quick resolution of outstanding issues,” said Mr McCully.
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I’m sure you’re right, George, but, sadly, this video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Rugby World Cup Ltd.
Mutter.For the love of… the game, they’re not doing themselves any favours, are they?
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Sacha, in reply to
I guess it makes superficial sense from a brand manager's perspective..
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Con los comentarios de ESPN en espanol...
Let's see how long this one lasts.
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Labour's official release by their Tourism spokesperson, Kelvin Davis.
“This was our big opportunity to promote New Zealand to overseas visitors. It was a debacle, from the disaster that was the transport system to the inadequacy of crowd control and police numbers, and the failure of technology which saw only three out of the six big screens working.
"It was interesting to overhear Kiwis caught up in the shambles apologising to foreigners for the problems.
“The Prime Minister, the Rugby World Cup Minister, the Minister of Infrastructure, and the Minister of Transport all had a hand in this. It’s now up to them to explain what went wrong.
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Concerning the the model upthread: I've had a little correspondence with Tony from Double Digit Numerics - their model counts both Argentina and Scotland at the pool stage, hence the sum. They've added in that much.
I'd still like to know what the odds are of Tonga or Manu Samoa winning are. I could of course look at the TAB, but a bookmaker's job is to work out the odds and then offer something different...
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bmk, in reply to
I'd still like to know what the odds are of Tonga or Manu Samoa winning are. I could of course look at the TAB, but a bookmaker's job is to work out the odds and then offer something different...
Well by looking at the TAB you can work out a maximum probability. If the TAB are offering 20:1 that obviously means that their bookmakers have worked out that they have a less than 20:1 chance.
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Simon Grigg, in reply to
I'm sure you're right, George, but, sadly, this video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Rugby World Cup Ltd
Hayley Westenra – World In Union:
This content cannot be played in your Country.
Tried using a proxy based in the US too - same result.
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“Duelo de HAKA! Nueva Ze…"Este video ya no esta disponsible debido a un reclamo do derechos de autor realizado por Rugby World Cup Limited.
Rights of the author… Tell that to Te Rauparaha. Or, for that matter, Ngaati Toa.
ETA: Oh dear. Have I started a copyright thread?
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Rich Lock, in reply to
Yeah, The traffic jam after the fireworks finished didn't clear going out of Devonport until around 10.30 yesterday evening - we can see the devo end of Lake Road from our bedroom and it was nose-to-tail for 2-3 hours heading out.
The ferries into town were suspended from around 5.00, but even when I was walking home at 3.00, the queue was back to the library.
Mt Vic looked like a christmas tree with all the torches on the slopes. We were down on the stretch between the navy base and the ferry terminal, and it was getting pretty darn snug.
Town was rammed even when I left at around 2.00.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Frontline staff did brilliantly on the night with what they had, but notwithstanding Craig’s hurt feelings the train operators continued a long trend of not communicating adequately with their customers.
Thanks for that, Sacha. [REDACTED: Realised I've breeched the privacy of a third party.] I won't hold my breath waiting for anyone to give a shit (why start now?), but I understand some train staff have been communicating extremely clearly with Veolia and their union reps about being harassed and abused by customers last night. I don't give a shit how "frustrated" and "panicked" some people were about getting to a sodding football game, if some of the shit I've heard is even half-true we don't deserve nice things in this town.
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bmk,
Well that was a thoroughly engrossing game which while it was lacking tries I really enjoyed. Just wish the upset had happened. Would've really set the cup alight had Romania beat Scotland and Argentina England.
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Great games. The narrowing gap between minnows and flounder bodes well.
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Great games. The narrowing gap between minnows and flounder bodes well
Reckon, All the underdogs have played well so far.
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SteveH, in reply to
Using that model, you might have two teams, one of which always got beaten at the quarter-final stage, and another which always lost the final. And you’d rate them the same as they’d both lost the same number of knockouts.
Rating them the same may well be reasonable if they both lost to the same opponent(s).
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Friday night's haka? This YouTube channel seems to evade the ban-hammer:
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Thanks for that Russell. Wonderful, just wonderful.
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Last night was more angst inducing than I would have expected. Really really wanted Argentina to win. Those black jerseys were pathetic, and in the end bothered me greatly.
England didn't deserve to win. Which is how they usually win. Their torpedo tackling technique is hardly what I'd call sporting either. Spare ribs anyone?
What did they bring Wilkinson for again? 'The goal posts that way!' Unfortunately Argentina couldn't find them either.
And just don't mention the Warriors.
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